Hill Country Living
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By Coulter Fussell
Happy New Year! We are only about a week into 2024 and if you’ve made any resolutions and stuck to them so far – then good on you! If you didn’t make any resolutions or made a resolution and have quit already – then congratulations on already being perfect and there clearly being no room for improvement!
I write this on the morning of the last day of Christmas break. Despite my teenage boys being out of school for close to a month, I’ve barely seen them as they have teenage boy business to which they must attend. This includes but is not limited to: incessantly driving all over two counties like they are made of gas money which they most certainly are not, spending a jail-time amount of hours holed up in their rooms playing video games loudly and with more passion that I ever see them exhibit about anything else otherwise, hanging out in large numbers of other teenagers at parties and doing God knows what all night, going on failed hunting trips at the crack of dawn ( despite claiming inability to wake up on school days,) eating entire family-sized boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a single day and anything having to do with girls.
Here is a Wagner Letter to a young John Henry from his school friend in North Carolina. This letter was written exactly 138 years ago to the day and teenage boys haven’t done much changing.
Oakville, North Carolina, January 8, 1886
Dear John,
I received your postal a few days ago and was very glad to hear from you. I was very sorry you could not attend the Hop. I was there and had a big time. We danced until 3 o’clock. Had about 50 girls and about 100 boys. Everything passed off as nicely as could be and everybody had a nice time.
I’m glad to know that you were coming back to Brigham School. Wish I could be there with you. You said something about seeing me about the 20th. If so, you have no idea how glad I feel. We would all like the best in the world to have you with us, and I assure you that I will try and make your visit enjoyable. In every respect. It makes me think of old times. I will take you around to see the girls and we will hunt and cut up jack and have a big time in general.
I went out bird hunting today and killed only one. I’m the poorest shot in the world, but the reason I didn’t get but one was because they were in the woods. And I couldn’t get half a chance. Game is very scarce about here because there are so many hunters in the neighborhood.
As this is all, I will close. Let me hear from you immediately and let me know what day you are coming.
From your old friend, W.B. Rodwell.
